


Decommissioned

by pepperlandgirl4



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-10-13
Packaged: 2018-08-22 04:26:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8272808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pepperlandgirl4/pseuds/pepperlandgirl4
Summary: Set after The Undiscovered Country. The Enterprise has been decommissioned and Uhura has a big decision to make.





	

**Author's Note:**

> _The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you're learning you're not old._ \-- Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

Nobody ever asked James Kirk why he never married. At least, not openly. His superiors at Starfleet certainly never made an issue of it, and Uhura would know if they had, as she was responsible for decoding and forwarding all messages from HQ. Spock was similarly spared, due to the fact that nobody wanted to delve too deeply into Vulcan mating habits. Everybody agreed that it was probably best not to know. Of course, nobody expected Spock to actually answer any question about his personal life, or even verify that he _had_ a personal life. Dr. McCoy, Commander Sulu, and Commander Chekov all had made an effort to have a normal life, quietly marrying, quietly divorcing, quietly sending credits and souvenirs back to the children they never saw. Their decisions were their own, and Uhura certainly never called upon any of them to justify the choices they made, the roads they took, the roads they failed to take. And they returned the favor to her, always maintaining a certain amount of space, of respectful distance. Unfortunately, she couldn’t say the same thing about her superiors.   
=  
Some days, it felt like every unattached man—and some attached ones—in Starfleet were interested in her. Except for the men she actually served with on the Enterprise. They all knew better. She certainly didn’t consider herself the most beautiful woman in Starfleet, and she absolutely wasn’t the most available. Even if she was interested in any of the men who sent her messages and trinkets and promises of devotion, it would have been difficult to maintain a relationship while zipping through the stars. But another, even greater, obstacle existed. Uhura had already found the love of her life. The USS Enterprise. As she was a very demanding mistress. Always had been. 

Now she was silent. Her corridors were dark. The bridge was silent. The computers were still and the engines no longer hummed the sweet song that had lulled her to sleep every night and greeted her when she woke in the morning. The faces that had been her constant companions for years were gone. Scotty wouldn’t be calling her from engineering, and Spock wouldn’t be rounding the corner, clutching a PADD and frowning in concentration. The Enterprise was a ghost town, and Uhura the last holdout. Everybody else had said their goodbyes. The Enterprise had outlived her usefulness, they said. She needed to be retired. And her crew? Well, they needed to retire as well. 

“Commander Uhura?” The only thing still fully operational were the comms. Uhura crossed the bridge to her station, to her chair, and flipped the switch. “Are you still on board?” 

“Yes, ensign, I’m here.” 

“Ten more minutes.” A pause then. “But I can stall for fifteen.” 

“Thank you, ensign.” 

Had she ever been that young? She had vague memories of the Academy. Of studying, of singing, of dancing, of flirting. Mostly she remembered the language lab, and sitting in the dark for hours after everybody else finished their studies. Languages like water poured through her, but always—always—she knew there were more. More languages, more dialects, more words than the Federation could ever catalogue. She remembered being hungry for each sound. She remembered the thrill of excitement as she tested the words in her own mouth. 

Words had a texture. Words had a taste. They had a shape. Uhura had spent hours in front of the mirror, watching the way her lips moved, the way her tongue fit against her teeth, the way the muscles in her throat pulled against her jaw, until she had truly understood speech as a physical act and not just a mental one. She remembered watching other people speak, as well. A strange consequence of this was learning how to read lips, but it had only been a happy accident and not her goal. She remembered having only one goal. The Enterprise. 

Uhura rose and crossed to the captain’s chair. She ran her fingers across the top and traced the curve of its back until she reached the armrest. The chair had never belonged to her, though she had sat in it more than once. _Lieutenant Uhura, you have the con._ And with those six words, she’d have the lives of four hundred and thirty men and women in her hands. In hindsight, those moments should have been the most stressful minutes of her life. But they weren’t. Captain Kirk had once told her that she had the mind and the temperament to be a captain of her own ship. With his recommendation, and Captain Spock’s support, she would have been promoted. But she had always declined the offer because there could only be one captain of the Enterprise, and Uhura had absolutely no desire to serve in any capacity aboard another starship. 

Perhaps that had been the wrong decision. In her youth, in her arrogance, it never occurred to her that one day she would be homeless. Only three other people—Kirk, Spock, and Scott—had served on the Enterprise with such single-minded devotion, and Uhura knew they were all as lost as her. Kirk would not agree to be a captain for another ship. Spock had already indicated he would dedicate himself to diplomacy full time. Scotty had simply looked at her with confusion in his brown eyes when she asked, reflecting her own feelings. Perhaps that was why she had briefly indulged in an infatuation with him. Who else could care for the Enterprise like the man who had spent so much time with his hands in the ship's guts? 

Uhura settled in the captain’s chair, crossing one leg over the other. She closed her eyes and the bridge came to life. The crew bustled around her, each person knowing his or her role, performing strongly, and moving in perfect rhythm with each other. The consoles blinked and beeped at her in a familiar, soothing song. The Enterprise was not ready for the graveyard. 

And neither was she. 

Uhura couldn’t do anything about the ship. Nobody at HQ asked her opinion when they decommissioned a starship. The decision hadn’t been made on the spur of the moment. The process was a long one and went through several different levels. In the end, a bunch of men who didn’t know the Enterprise at all had made a decision that, ultimately, they weren’t qualified to make. If she allowed them, they would make the same decision about her. 

She opened her eyes and the vibrancy returned to darkness. A rash of goosebumps erupted across her arms and down her spine. The environment controls had long been disabled. The power had been cut. The ensign—when did they get so young—would be back to get her. She wouldn’t let him drag her from her own ship. 

It wasn’t her ship. It had been Captain Kirk’s. And they hadn’t been following her star. 

“Commander Uhura?” 

This time the voice came from the lift. She felt a sudden sting at the corner of her eyes, like she was turning to her face her executioner, and not the young man designated with the task of clearing the ship. 

“Yes, I’m ready.” 

“They don’t make them like this anymore, do they?” 

“No, they don’t.” 

The ensign’s smile was friendly. Sincere. “Your shuttle is here. Where are you going to be heading?” 

“San Francisco.” 

“Oh. Are you going to be instructing at Starfleet?” 

“No.” As soon as Uhura said the word, she knew it was right. It was time to find her own star. “I’m going to apply for a promotion.” 

“A promotion?” 

“To captain.” 

“Aren’t you a little…” 

“Yes, Ensign?”

“Space exploration is dangerous.” 

“Yes. It is. That’s why it requires experience.” She gestured at the lift. “After you, mister.” 

He nodded and turned sharply. She paused before stepping into the lift, kissed two fingers, and touched the wall. All great relationships had to come to an end sooner or later. But that didn’t mean her life was over. There were still worlds to explore, still adventures to be had. Still languages to learn and words to taste.


End file.
